P1 M bail for GMA shows Aquino’s ‘forgive and forget policy’

THE FISHERFOLK alliance said they were outraged by the decision of the Pasay Regional Trial Court (RTC) granting the request of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for bail in relation to the electoral sabotage case filed against her in connection with the 2007 senatorial elections.

The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said the Pasay RTC decision granting the former President temporary freedom in exchange for P 1 million bail is an indication that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III is ready to forgive and forget the former President for her crimes against the Filipino people.

“It appears to us that there is an exchange deal and political accommodation between the camp of former President Arroyo and the gangland of Aquino. The decision of Pasay RTC granting the request for bail is a lucid testimony to this undeclared yet very obvious political transaction,” the group said.

The group asserted that the electoral sabotage case filed against former President Arroyo was fatally weak and it could be junked anytime by the Pasay RTC.

They said the Aquino administration intentionally made the case weak to enable GMA to seek bail and buy her temporary freedom while talks of future exchange deals are still to be agreed upon by the two camps.

“Mr. Aquino is not serious in prosecuting and sending GMA to jail. The President is only engaged in political propaganda and image-building for his own political survival,” the group said.

In January 2010, Pamalakaya filed a plunder case against former President Arroyo and other officials of the Department of Agriculture in connection with the P 455-million procurement of 98 ice-making machines less than 6 six months before the May 2010 presidential and national elections.

The case was filed before the Office of the Ombudsman but the anti-graft quasi-judicial body has yet to act on the two year old plunder case.